Reform remains an issue at troubled Port Authority even after Bridge plea, indictments

FILE - In this Tuesday, March 11, 2014, file photograph, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's former Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Anne Kelly and her attorney Michael Critchley, right, arrive at court for a hearing in Trenton, N.J. David Wildstein, a former Christie ally, pleaded guilty Friday, May 1, 2015, to helping engineer traffic jams at the George Washington Bridge in 2013 and concocting a cover-up along with Kelly and Bill Baroni, who was Christie's top appointee at the Port Authority. (AP Photo/Mel Evans, File)
(The Associated Press)

David Wildstein, left, and his attorney Alan Zegas, leave Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Courthouse in Newark, N.J. Friday, May 1, 2015. Wildstein, a former Port Authority appointee of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, pleaded guilty on charges arising from a federal probe into traffic jams he ordered on the George Washington Bridge, allegedly on behalf of Gov. Christie. (AP Photo/Rich Schultz)
(The Associated Press)

U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Paul J. Fishman announces that William E. Baroni and Bridget Anne Kelley were each charged by a federal grand jury at during a news conference at the federal building in Newark, N.J. Friday, May 1, 2015. Baroni, a former top official at the Port Authority and Kelley, a former member of Gov. Chris Christie's staff have been charged with a scheme to misuse Port Authority resources to facilitate and conceal the causing of traffic problems in Fort Lee to punish the borough's mayor for not endorsing the Governor's re-election. (AP Photo/Rich Schultz)
(The Associated Press)

NEWARK, N.J. – The leader of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey says he's optimistic about the agency's future even as the criminal case surrounding lane closures at the George Washington Bridge moves forward and a second investigation still looms.

Chairman John Degnan says there's an opportunity to learn from Friday's guilty plea of a former Port Authority official and the indictments of two other former allies of Gov. Chris Christie.

Degnan says the bridge case indictments can show the Port Authority if there are any other new reforms that should be undertaken.

But a separate investigation into Degnan's predecessor could still yield further embarrassment for the bistate authority.